Portable electronic devices have become ubiquitous over the past several years. It is now common for people to grab their portable media player, cell phone, laptop, and other such devices on the way out the door in the morning. The reasons for this popularity include the ever-increasing amount of functionality that Apple Inc., of Cupertino, Calif., is packing into their lines of iPods, iPhones, and related devices.
This functionality includes the original reason for their proliferation: music playback. But these devices have moved far beyond that, adding other types of media playback and other functionality. Recording has been added; some of these devices can now take pictures. Connectivity has been added; users can surf the web and navigate their way around an unfamiliar town. These devices have been a boon to the workplace as well, allowing people to read documents and read and send email messages. Of particular importance here, games can be played on them.
While the functionality of these devices has increased, their size has decreased. To achieve this size reduction, the user interface to these devices has been made very efficient. For example, some devices feature a front surface that is nearly filled with a touchscreen. The touchscreen provides almost the entirety of the user interface; it is used to display images and it is used to receive tactile command and data inputs from a user. That is, the device displays an image, the user touches, drags, taps, or otherwise touches the touchscreen, and the device interprets the touches as commands or data input. Other devices include a clickwheel that can be used to receive these tactile commands.
Unfortunately, while playing games can be fun on these portable electronic devices, it can also be somewhat awkward, particularly on a portable electronic device having a touchscreen. The same screen used for viewing an avatar's activities is used to control the avatar. This arrangement causes the user's fingers block the action. Thus, while these portable electronic devices include a highly efficient interface, when playing games it is often desirable to have a more specialized user interface.